The Derelicts offer us a mixture of 70s and 80s rock. They've been on the scene since the 70's and have built up quite a fan base in this time, starting off in the early days with covers of bands such as The Kinks and sticking with the genre through thick and thin and disco!
The band have also been through their fair share of splits and member changes, and so it is probably hard to sum up their overall sound as it is never quite the same from one minute to the next!
The music is very well engineered and will appeal to many fans of the genre simply because of the sliding guitars, but unfortunately the track "Hindsights 20-20" which we listened to for this review fell short for us on the vocal side. It felt like a runaway train, the music literally rocking the house while the singers were straining to keep up!
The track seemed to fizzle out towards the end and began to sound a bit repetitive. This is in no way representative of the band itself who have earned their name over the years with their fans - but sorry guys, the track just didn't do it for us.
The song itself is apparently based on an expression that the singers mother used to say when things didn't go according to plan. Basing ideas on real life experiences or events like this usually gives us a lot of potential, not to mention some pretty crazy ideas, but we sort of got the impression here that the music and lyrics were worked out separately and that in the end there weren't enough words to go around!!!
Don't get us wrong. The Derelicts have interested us enough to have spent some time poring over this track and passing it around for comments from our colleagues. This is just one track of many on the Derelicts site and each has it's own feel - but since we were asked to review "20-20" we feel that these points should be made. The potential can be heard in the song, but perhaps we need a bit more oomph! You should certainly check out the site at http://www.angelfire.com/myband/TheDerelicts/index.html and make up your own mind.
The Derelicts have a new CD coming out soon, and we very much hope we get a chance to review it on these pages. It's always easier to be more positive when you have an overall picture of a bands "range", and the tracks on their site show that they have this going for them. If the music on the CD is as diverse, it should make good listening.
